Now that we are fighting another war, it’s instructive to see what Martin Luther said about the subject.
Luther was far from being a pacifist. He argued in his treatise Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved (1526) that soldiers have a true Christian vocation in which they can love and serve their neighbors by defending their country. In general, Luther believed in St. Augustine’s doctrine of Just War. But, it seems to me, Luther broke new ground in his analysis of wars that are unjust.
I came across an excellent paper that Lutheran pastor Alex Post delivered at an Iowa District East symposium in 2016. Entitled Martin Luther on the Doctrine of Just War, the presentation summarizes the criteria for a just war that the church has taught for centuries: “just authority, just cause and right intention, . . . last resort, proportionality and comparative justice, and probability of success.” He then shows how Luther treats these principles over eight of his works. I urge you to read the whole paper.
Here I’d just like to highlight some of Rev. Post’s quotations from Luther. These are all from Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved. The emphases are mine:
“It is not right to start a war just because some silly lord has gotten the idea into his head. At the very outset I want to say that whoever starts a war is in the wrong.”
“Worldly government has not been instituted by God to break the peace and start war, but to maintain peace and to avoid war.”
”Wait until the situation compels you to fight when you have no desire to do so.”
“No war is just, even if it is a war among equals, unless one has such a good reason for fighting and such a good conscience that he can say, ‘My neighbor compels and forces me to fight, though I would rather avoid it.’ In that case, it can be called not only war, but lawful self-defense, for we must distinguish between wars that someone else begins because that is what he wants to do and does before anyone else attacks him, and those wars that are provoked when an attack is made by someone else. The first kind can be called wars of desire; the second, wars of necessity. The first kind are of the devil; God does not give fortune to the man who wages that kind of war. The second kind are human disasters; God help in them!”
Since the will is in bondage to sin, wars that we or our leaders want to fight are wrong. These “wars of desire” are from the devil. Rather, we should go to war “when you have no desire to do so.” Those “wars of necessity” are still horrible, but they are “human disasters” that are not sinful, as such.
Notice Luther’s neighbor-centered ethic, which is his monumental contribution to Christian ethics. Just as vocation is not for ourselves, but for our neighbor, the same holds true for the vocations involved in waging war. “‘My neighbor compels and forces me to fight, though I would rather avoid it.’” The will is against going to war. (“I would rather avoid it.”) But love of our neighbors in jeopardy from an enemy compels us to defend them. (“‘My neighbor compels and forces me to fight.'”)
This strikes me as brilliant moral reflection that is nuanced, forthright, and applicable. I was most taken by Luther’s principle that “whoever starts a war is in the wrong.” According to just war theory, defensive wars are justified, while wars of aggression are not. Here, Luther brings that principle down to earth with breath-taking simplicity: Who started the war? Who fired the first shot?
Now such issues are not always clear. Is provoking a war the same as starting it? Does love of neighbor–such as Iran’s slaughter of its own citizens protesting the regime–require us to intervene militarily by attacking first? Such questions can be debated. But let’s see what happens when we apply Luther’s principle that whoever starts a war is in the wrong to some actual wars:
(1) Today’s War in Iran. The United States started it.
(2) The Gaza War. Hamas assaulted Israel on October 7, 2023.
(3) The War in Ukraine. Russia invaded.
(4) The War in Iraq. The United States started it.
(5) The War in Afghanistan. Disputed: If the Taliban was complicit in the 9/11 attacks, they started it. But the U.S. initiated the attacks in Afghanistan.
(6) The Viet Nam War. After the split between the Communist north and the non-Communist south, the Viet Cong and North Vietnam sought to take over South Vietnam.
(7) The Korean War. North Korea crossed the 38th parallel in an invasion of South Korea.
(8) World War II. Hitler invaded Poland. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
(9) World War I. A Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austrian Archduke, but that was the act of a private individual rather than a matter of state. But Austria responded by shelling Belgrade, which pulled in the alliances on each side.
(10) The American Civil War. The Confederates attacked Fort Sumter.
(11) The American Revolutionary War. The first shot was fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. British troops marched on entrenched colonials. Which side fired the first shot is disputed. But I would have to admit, reluctantly, that the colonists started it by rebelling.
We could go on. Of course, responsibility for many of these wars is contested. And who fired the first shots is not necessarily the whole story about which side caused the wars.
But, though opinions may differ, Luther’s distinctions can at least help to bring moral clarity. We should ask ourselves when considering taking up arms, is this a war of necessity or desire? Do you want to fight this war, or would you rather not? Does it serve yourself or your neighbor?
What if the war is unjust? Rev. Post cites some rather surprising teachings of Luther on this matter:
But what if the cause of the war is unjust? What then is the duty and calling of Christians with regard to their earthly, temporal, civil authorities? Luther addresses this as well. “What if a prince is in the wrong? Are his people bound to follow him then too? Answer: No, for it is no one’s duty to do wrong; we must obey God (Who desires the right) rather than men [Acts 5:29]. What if the subjects do not know whether their prince is in the right or not? Answer: So long as they do not know, and cannot with all possible diligence find out, they may obey him without peril to their souls.”. . .
God does not call us to do wrong, even if we are just obeying orders. God does call us to suffer, rather than to do evil. But the other part of the quote above is very important as well. The full extent of whether war is just or not cannot always be known. This doesn’t excuse willful ignorance, but it does comfort the conscience of the soldier, or ruler, or citizen, who, with all diligence, tries to know whether the authority and cause for war is just, and, in a time of uncertainty, acts to the best of his knowledge.
Illustration: The Battle of Rocroi [Thirty Years’ War] by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25148552
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